Official Review: The Bad Path to Enlightenment

[zoedecicco]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Bad Path to Enlightenment" by Lee A. Eide.]

---

3 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

This is a rather odd but interesting book. The author uses the plot and characters of the TV show Breaking Bad, plus a mixture of personal experience and external knowledge, to provide help for those in recovery from substance misuse, or trying to recover.

The author himself is a recovering alcoholic. He talks a lot about drinking and addiction and his own experiences with these problems. He relates a lot of the characters’ choices very personally to his own life, for example the death of his wife, who was also an alcoholic.

I would say that you need to have seen the TV show, in order to enjoy this book as the author goes into quite a lot of detail about what happens in each episode, sometimes just describing, sometimes developing it and analyzing.

A central theme is main character Walt’s ego and pride. The Ego is a theory that the author uses a lot to show why people all over the world are so unhappy. Another theme is the resistance of truth, and he shows how both Walt and substance misusers try to avoid seeing the truth.

There is a real mix of wisdom underpinning this book - the author talks a little about God, though there are also references to Buddhist thought, meditation and breathing, the seven deadly sins, plus some philosophy and psychology too.

A downside to this book is the uneven coverage the author sometimes gives to the different themes of the book - Breaking Bad, philosophy, addiction, and his own experiences. Sometimes the focus is heavily on the TV show and it isn’t so obvious how he is linking this to the other themes. It is hard to know what he is trying to achieve over all – perhaps a little too much at once, I feel.

The book is certainly not well polished. There are typos throughout, and some major cut and paste errors that give it an unfortunate amateur feel.

The author also refers to a previous book he has written over and over again, and it does start to get a little tedious. One wonders why he doesn’t just combine the two texts with the amount that he refers to it. I understand that this book is a compilation of a number of blog entries, but the constant referral to his book feels quite egotistical, which goes against one of the key values being advocated within the book.

As it wears on, the repetitive comparison of Breaking Bad events, episode after episode, to alcoholics and the author’s life also starts to feel a little tiresome. I feel that all the lessons are there after just half of the book, so perhaps he could’ve just pulled out overarching themes rather than trawling through the TV show, episode after episode.

Overall, however, there are many insightful lessons to be learned within the pages here, if you can look past these issues. It is substance misuse centered, but there are certainly some gems of wisdom in here for everyone.

Big Breaking Bad fans will enjoy the analysis of the plot and characters. The author picks up on many metaphorical aspects and symbols that are really interesting and insightful.

We are shown how Walt’s character hardens and slowly becomes his new persona, Heisenberg. This happens gradually, problem after problem, incident after incident, even when there are people dying. This is a good study on Ego, and it translates well to the topic of substance abuse.

I have given this book three out of four stars. It rather strange, and covers a niche subject, but there is a lot to like about it. It is certainly one of the quirkiest books I’ve read recently.

******
The Bad Path to Enlightenment
View: on Bookshelves | Hassle-Free Sample

Like zoedecicco's review? Post a comment saying so!

[amybo82]

This is an interesting review! As I was reading the first couple of paragraphs, I thought I probably wouldn't understand a lot of the book because I haven't watched Breaking Bad. The third paragraph definitely confirms this hunch.

[ALynnPowers]

The title of the book is interesting, and the concept sounds interesting as well, but like the commenter before me, I also haven't seen the TV show (it's not available in my country yet, or if it is, it's too "new" for me to know about) so it sounds like nothing would make much sense to me.

[debo9967]

The concept of the book sounds really interesting and different. Nice review.

[zoedecicco]

Thanks for your comments everyone!

[TammyO]

Nice review. I love when authors incorporate their own life experiences into their books. It makes it more personal. It sounds like this book could use a little revising though. Overall, it sounds very promising.